Being a game developer is similar to being an astronaut or a pilot sometime ago. Just wait a bit and it will solve itself out.
Why your games are made by childless, 31 year old white men
161–170 of 177 posts
Re: Why your games are made by childless, 31 year old white men
#162Is the small percentage of veteran developer really due to low retention rate? I am guessing it is more due to the industry not being as big 10 years ago. 20% of respondents with 10+ years could means the gaming industry gotten 5 times bigger 10 years ago.
Re: Why your games are made by childless, 31 year old white men
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
C++ has plenty of uses outside games and it's still one of the most demanded languages, although here on HN most people seem to work on web development and rarely need C++. The truth is, if you don't like C++, you won't like working on an industry that relies heavily on it (however, not every game is done in C++, and certainly few games use it exclusively), so in that case it may be a good idea to go for another indu…
I really like the way C++11 is and I already see how it is in so many ways more likeable than Java as an OO language. But a question arises: would the common C++ jobs be maintaining legacy C++98 codebases? Also, when I am thinking about possibly being in web development, then is it a much more diverged path from the C family or could I somehow keep this as an open option? Is the easiest solution simply learn e.g. Jav…
Good question. It depends on the field, I guess.
In academia there are a lot of ad hoc scientific simulations, and yes, many people still prefer C++ over Matlab, R or Numpy (because of speed or because they feel more comfortable with it). In those cases, you'll write a few medium-sized programs from scratch, and will probably be free to use the new features.
In videogames you will likely develop new code over an existing engine, which means that C++11 may be available, but the engine will probably be written in an older version of C++, and C++11 maybe won't be allowed during engine maintenance.
When maintaining big ancient systems, which are all over the place, chances are that you will be restricted to C++03 or maybe an even older version, but it's not the only possibility, so you may get lucky.
In any case, C++11-ready compilers should accept C++98 and C++03 code, so there is always the option of starting to use modern compilers, and when every potential problem is solved, you can use the C++11 features. Just hope your boss is not too averse to changes, and keep in mind that mixing modern style C++ with older style may result in poorly readable code.
As for web development, well, there actually exist a few people using C or C++, but the only languages from the C family you're likely to find on a web server are Java and C#, and they're less and less prevalent nowadays. You're more likely to find PHP, Python or Ruby. In the client you're obviously restricted to javascript, but beware: despite the syntax, it's very different from the C family. If you want to learn javascript, that surely won't hurt, just keep in mind that it carries a few paradigm changes (lack of static typing, object modeling and inheritance through prototypes, and A LOT of quirks about the syntax).
Re: Why your games are made by childless, 31 year old white men
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because that requires capital, and no one is going to fund interns , skilled though they may be.
In time of the internets I can't imagine a design shop hard to bootstrap. On internet nobody knows you're an intern.
They have to build out a real world portfolio to be able to get clients on their own... and that will be created through real experience, not just school work. So, being an intern makes sense, but they should make a living wage.
Re: Why your games are made by childless, 31 year old white men
#165My sons thank you 31 year old childless white man. I don't believe they will also become 31 year old childless white man because 1, they are asian, and 2, they won't even take the trash out to the can, even if the can was where it was supposed to be...
Re: Why your games are made by childless, 31 year old white men
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might not realize it but the thing you're complaining about? That's the Patriarchy to a t. No one thinks 'patriarchy' means 'all men oppressing all women.' except people constructing straw men. Patriarchy is the force that both tells women they belong at home and tells men that it's honourable to die in war. It's all around us.
Not really. Patriarchy literally means "rule of the fathers", and the point being made when people talk about the patriarchy is exactly that all men are, fundamentally, more like the handful of men at the top than any women is - that men at all levels benefit from the power structures within society. In fact, the reason it was called "patriarchy" in the first place was to draw an analogy between men who ruled entire…
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Re: Why your games are made by childless, 31 year old white men
#167I'm curious where those of you who "left the gaming industry" ended up.
Are you guys now belting out CRUD apps using the latest web framework like the rest of us? Or did some of you walk away from programming all together?
I'm just curious what a "post gaming" career looks like. Feel free to share any numbers on how your pay/lifestyle changed as a result.
Re: Why your games are made by childless, 31 year old white men
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That assumes that you don't get any value out of having a glamorous job. The only value you get out of having a "glamorous job" is that other people think you have a glamorous job. Glamour has to do with perception , not reality. > Sure, there are tons of people that want to be game developers. Why? Because a lot of things about being a game developer are awesome! Wrong. They want to be game developers because they…
I work in a related industry (film) and you're mostly wrong here. The work itself is what keeps people in the industry, and the work is genuinely more fun than other jobs I've had for a number of reasons. - You're expected to always be on the absolute cutting edge in an extremely fast moving area, computer graphics. - The ultimate goal of the projects is to make images that are so appealing, people will pay money to…
Sigh...you've completely missed my point.
> The work itself is what keeps people in the industry, and the work is genuinely more fun than other jobs I've had for a number of reasons.
Let me say once again:
My point was that you should consider the bias of perception on market dynamics when determining your occupation, rather than falling prey to the trap of perception, like a lot of people do.
If your job really is as fun as it is perceived to be, then everything I've said obviously doesn't apply to you.
Now, I don't know anything about the film industry first-hand, but I've heard plenty of stories from friends and acquaintances about how ridiculously difficult it is to get into (primarily on the acting side of things, though, so it may not apply to your particular occupation). There's definitely a reporting bias. For every person like you who is happily employed in the film industry, there are hundreds of people who journeyed to Hollywood with the hopes of making it big and then realized that things weren't so easy.
Re: Why your games are made by childless, 31 year old white men
#169Counter example here. 42 and still happy and thriving in the games industry and married with children. I'm happy to say I have read my kids stories every night of their lives (out of town trips excluded), and make it home for a family meal 95% of the time. You can't do this at every game company, but there are enough out there that you can find them.
I'm in a very similar situation. Finding the right company (or starting your own) seems to be the key to happiness. Don't write off the entire industry because of bad companies.
Re: Why your games are made by childless, 31 year old white men
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not constructing a straw man. You'll be bullied until you go silent if you claim to be a feminist while asserting that men can be victims of sexism, or that whites/Asians can be victims of racism[1]. You can use the word "Patriarchy". You can use the phrase "male domination". But it doesn't change the fact that men at the bottom have to watch the men at the top stomping all over them while preening themselves. [1…
Conservative fundamentalists bully me for being born the wrong way and having liberal views, and recently the liberals have all taken to bullying me as well whenever I post stuff about, well, male victims of sexism or white/asians being victimized by racism. It's an incredibly cruel thing to do. For example, I saw my mother beating my father all the time when I was growing up, yet I get a bunch of straight liberals y…
Even if women were literally never aggressive against men, it's nonsensically cruel to use that as a reason against shelters for men.
"You don't deserve a safe space, John, because people with your genitals are the ones committing violence."
They have disturbingly collectivist notions of guilt.